So quickly a fold crease forms. Soon to take shape around a baby Buddha

As with fabric and clothes so too with our bodies. Creases form over time! In addition how we habitually fold ourselves, and unfold, conditions how our form moves. I guess this follows on from the Buddha pears…. Unknowingly we cast ourselves in a mold, adopt a shape.

Keep in! the teacher at the back of the line of children called, gently, as they scuttled excitedly from the school yard onto the pavement this morning. Ah sunshine! I shared a little in their excitement remembering teacher telling us to Keep in as we scramble out of school to go on a ramble. Two by two, hand in hand and one behind the other. Just once a year we went into the woods during school time to…ramble. I loved those days.

The new leaves on the Field Maple caught my eye. They shine. Then as other leaves grow they lose their shine, mature and mellow. As is the way of things. One sees this process everywhere. Easy to think in sad terms. Perhaps in terms of passing time and all that brings in an everyday way. Of aging; decay and eventual shriveling up and ceasing to be. But I think not. Not today. There is something eternal in the scuttling excited children as with the new leaves. (And also equally true with the shriveled leaf.) There is certainly a depth to existence which is not diminished by mere passing of physical time.

Gao has been working on his pear-growing technique for six years and this season he managed to grow 10,000 Buddha-shaped baby pears. Each fruit is grown in an intricate Buddha mold and ends up looking like a juicy figurine. The ingenious farmer says the locals in his home village of Hexia, norther China, have been buying his Buddha pears as soon as he picks them from the trees. Most of them think they are cute and that they bring good luck. Chinese Farmer Grows Buddha-Shaped Pears

It did take a bit of time for the truth of this interesting endeavour to sink in. Buddha shaped pears. Amazing!

Thank goodness we who aspire to sit still (meditate) don’t grow in molds. Although that’s a common mistake in the early days. Well intentioned newbies quite often attempt to fit into an imagined ideal posture for meditation. And once there attempt to internally mould themselves into meditation mind.